Photographer's Note

Agiou Pavlou monastery was founded in the tenth century by St Pavlos Xeropotaminos, and first mentioned in 972. A traditional rivalry with Great Lavra developed, evidently due to the controversies surrounding the advocacy of the 'super' monastery style by St. Athanasios of Great Lavra. After being founded, it is again mentioned in 1259; after the Catalan raids, St. Paul's was downgraded to a kellion, only to be raised again in the third quarter of the 1300s. Serbian rulers supported the monastery in the 1400s; after 1453, rulers of Eastern Europe supported the monastery.